Cops suspended for making live-in partners strip

The Assam police on Saturday suspended three constables in central Assam's Morigaon town for allegedly forcing a live-in couple to strip, filming them and sending the video to local TV channels to "teach them a lesson".

A senior police officer said the trio — Krishna Saikia, Saumeswar Bordoloi and Anupam Saikia — had on August 17 acted as moral police and barged into the rented accommodation of the couple near a college in Morigaon, 140km east of Guwahati.

"Locals complained the couple, both students and in their early twenties, was made to strip. They were then filmed and the footage sent to local TV channels to embarrass them," he said.

Morigaon police had earlier claimed they caught the

couple in a compromising position and had called photographers in. But they faced public ire after the footage was telecast.

Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti, a human rights body, and other social groups also demonstrated outside the district collector's office, demanding action against the ‘voyeuristic' policemen.

Morigaon superintendent of police Jeetmol Doley said a department inquiry had been ordered into the incident.

"We won't settle for mere suspension. We will take up the issue with the National Human Rights Commission for violating the modesty of a woman," said rights activist Babumoni Goswami.